The Song Remains The Same
by Holding Out For A Hero
Summary: Kimberly Hart has never been normal, not since she was 15 and a mystical being from another planet made her a superhero. But she had put that life behind her, after a disastrous dip in a lava pit, she had hung up her spandex and called it quits. The problem is Once a Ranger...Always a Ranger.
1. Preface

A/N: I haven't written PR fanfic in actual years so please be kind. Of course I don't own any of this and am making no money from it. There is also a poll up for this story, if you could please vote in it.

"You were after all, brought into this world to fight"

Kimberly Hart could, with an abject accuracy honed from many such occasions, say that she could always tell exactly when her life was going to go heels over head with crazy. It was something she could generally tell from just after waking up in the morning, how she would feel her bones shift differently as she stretched and went through her morning routine. How she never quite felt settled, always anxious for whatever was going to happen, to well, just happen already.

After getting ready for her day, Kim headed out into the busy streets of New York, planning to get to the gym where she coached gymnastics an hour earlier than needed, giving her time to warm up and get together what she needed for that afternoon's sessions. She only had two, each three hours long, and there was a hope that she might even manage to get done earlier enough to get home and binge watch one of the six shows she hadn't nearly gotten close to finishing.

And then of course, because she had known that at some point in the day it would happen, her life was flipped on its axis again, and monsters fell from the sky.


	2. Soldier Keep On Marching On

A/N: As usual I don't own anything you notice. Also I'm sorry a good chunk of this is an info dump but i just need to get everything up to speed and in place fore the next few chapters. Also shhhh don't tell any of the scary people, but this is a crossover for a few chapters. The Avengers character's will be with us for a bit but the main focus is and will always be Kim and the Rangers.

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One of the things that Kim has always found interesting about these situations is that there always is, for a few very brief moments, a calm quiet as everyone kept going about their daily lives just before they realized they were in danger. The former Pink Ranger took those calm moments to turn on her heel and run the few feet back to her apartment, thankful that she hadn't gone too far away from it.

She heard the screaming start before she had even cleared the first flight of stairs and it spurred the chocolate haired woman up the stairs faster than other humans would have been able to manage. She had learned as the years passed that while she looked older, her body still performed as if she was 16 years old; Her body had retained her strength, speed, heightened senses and accelerated healing. Maybe it was from the Power or maybe it was from being one of Maligore's children even if that had been barely a half hour, and possibly it was a mix of both but Kimberly was suddenly immensely thankful for it. Finally inside her apartment she made her way through the living room and into her bedroom, dropping to the floor and pulling a bright pink trunk from underneath her king size bed. Putting her thumb on the scanner it popped open and she immediately started pulling equipment from it and pilling what she would need on the bed above her. Her bow was first, shiny black inlaid with wood that had been stained a deep pink and a pink drawstring, the black leather hip quiver full of arrows with sharp tips. Next was the thigh holster and the Glock 19 that went into it along with two extra magazines for it and finally was a K-Bar knife that she could carry on the opposite hip as her quiver.

She thought back to when she first moved to New York, after the 2000 games were said and done and she decided she didn't want to compete anymore, also realizing that questioned would be raised at her performing a peak while being 26. Her age during the 2000 games had been heavily commented on, even more so after she had won gold. She moved to the city with plans to eventually start her own gym after some time down time, wanting to be away from anywhere that reminded her of her home state. It was Kim's first time living truly alone, away from her friends and family, not in a dorm or in a complex where her teammates lived just the next doors over, and while she didn't scare easily, she wasn't an active ranger, and getting a gun had seemed like the smartest and safest thing to do. Getting her license had been easy enough and the bow had been an indulgence really. She had seen it while browsing different models of guns, hanging behind the counter along with two custom shotguns. She had asked about it nonchalantly and the clerk had explained that an investment banker had it commissioned for his daughter who decided she didn't like black or pink anymore and the man had never come to pick it up, even fully paid for. Kimberly had bought it, along with the quiver and more arrows than she thought she would ever need in a lifetime, but as she looked out her window, she knew she was going to be proved very wrong. Switching out her sneakers for a pair of combat boots and slipping a long sleeved, tight fitting black half zip pullover over her tank top before putting all her gear on, Kim made one last minute decision. Going back into the box she pulled from the bottom corner her silver and pink communicator, attaching it around her right wrist with a deep breath.

Outside was chaos.

People were running and screaming, while monsters came down from above to terrorize them. Kim knocked an arrow into her bow and let it fly, hitting the monster where it's head connected to it's neck, a weak point in the armor they seemed to be wearing. She kept stationary for a few moments, taking out as many of them flying as she could before she moved down the street, protecting people while she did her best to take out the monsters. She absently wished she could morph, her Power Bow never ran out of energy arrows and it would make the few that had jumped down to stop her from firing at them easier to fight off. She ran out of arrows quicker than she had anticipated, slinging the bow on her back and switching to her gun, taking measure of her shots so as not to waste them and focusing more on getting people to safety. She didn't know how much good it was doing, but what seemed like ages later, they suddenly all dropped dead.

She didn't find out how until after, when she was back in her apartment which had managed to escape any kind of damage, with the TV on as she soaked her muscles in the tub. The public was for the most part, defending the Avengers, thanking them for saving the world, but for every three that loved them, there were two that blamed them. Picking up the remote, Kimberly shut off the television, not in the mood to hear the rhetoric as it brought up to many emotions. She had heard it enough as a teenager when people on the news talked about the Power Rangers. It didn't make her feel any better to know that while the times had changed, people hadn't.

Sitting at the kitchen table later on, she brushed her fingers against the communicator on her wrist absently.. There was a strong temptation to try and call Jason on it, just to see if he was okay. Although the shock of her calling might cause him even more harm if he wasn't. The last time Kim did some digging on him, she learned he had become a New York City cop, and she wondered if he had been hurt today during all the chaos. Picking up her cellphone she did a quick search of the casualties listed during the Battle of New York, scanning three different lists before the flipping in her stomach settled enough. No one who she recognized had been listed, Jason's name having been the one she was looking for the most.

She hadn't spoken to any of the rangers since after the tournament on Muranthias, having slipped quietly away during the team's celebration of their win at the Youth Center. It had been too painful, Kimberly far to full of regret to stay around any longer than she had. The thing was, leaving the rangers had been the dumbest thing she had ever done in her life, and she had regretted the moment she got to Florida and realized exactly what she had just done. But she had told herself she made her choice, that gymnastics was her dream and she had to dedicate herself to it. It hadn't been easy and it had been even harder to keep her relationship with Tommy together. She was jealous of him and the other rangers, envious as she listened to him tell her stories of all that she was missing out on. Sending him that letter had been the hardest thing she had ever done, Kimberly loved Tommy more than she had ever loved anyone, more than she ever would love anyone if she was honest, so she had broken it off in the cruelest way she had known, a way that would make sure Tommy was too upset to question the damn thing and call her. It had worked, even if Kim had been heartbroken by it. Maybe it was for the best then, she had told herself, maybe they had been growing apart. She dedicated herself to her training, and refused to talk to anyone about what happened with her ex, even hanging up on Jason when the older boy would just not let it go.

It had taken almost two months for Jason to convince her to go back to Angel Grove to surprise everyone, the man she had called her big brother having to wheedle, plead and even resort to threatening before the former pink ranger finally agreed to go along with him. It had been a disaster in more ways than one. It had felt so good to give into the evil, to get lost in all those dark and negative feelings, to take some of the resentment and anger out on the girl who had, in all ways, replaced her. "Friend's, I don't have any friends." she had told the blonde Australian and well maybe drunk words and evil words were of the same kind. It had been a true feeling for her, even then. After it was all said and done, she completely cut off all contact, changing her phone number, ignoring emails, having letters sent back unopened. Once and awhile, when she got immensely curious, Kim googled the people that used to be closest to her to find out who they had become in her absence.

 **S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, New York City, February 4th 2014**

Agent Kimberly Hart peeled herself out of her uniform in the locker room after her most recent debrief with only thoughts of heading back to her apartment and sleeping for the next two days. She had never been more thankful for the cold of New York than she had after returning from the mission she had just been on in Indonesia, the humid heat was something she no longer enjoyed very much.

A lot of things had changed for the former Power Ranger since New York or The Incident as it had become widely known. Kim had been yearning to get back out there, after the time she had spent on the streets of the city, and while she was deciding if the NYPD was large enough that she could possibly never run into Jason, SHIELD had come knocking on her door. It seems someone monitoring the situation had caught her act on the ground and turns out, SHIELD was always in the market for new agents who were willing to throw themselves on the wire, calm in a crisis and, quoting the director when he had her brought in, they were very interested in a world class gymnast with aim that good. She hadn't told him or anyone at SHEILD what she was, or about the enhancements that ran through and she would try to keep it that way for as long as she possibly could.

Becoming an agent had been exactly what she needed, a way where she was neck deep back in the fight and felt like she was doing some kind of good. She had kept back some of her fighting skills during her initial training, not wanting to raise questions about how a seemingly air-headed gymnast with already questionable skills with a gun and a bow, was also an expert martial artist. Even the computer and basic engineering classes she made sure to make a show of almost not getting it, simply because she could not explain that her childhood best friend had been a genius who helped repair alien megazords and taught the rest of the team how to help with basic repairs. Once she was through the training Kimberly moved quickly through the ranks quickly, quicker than she was sure was normal, but she decided if no one was asking her about it, then she wouldn't worry about it to much. That was how you ended up paranoid.

Sliding the tactical backpack over her shoulder now that she was back in civilian clothes, Kimberly exited the locker room and started to head through the main level where agents monitoring cities all over the world were sitting in front of screens which would lead her to the elevator and take her down to the street below. Her eye catches on a flash of gold and red, the Avengers doing battle. She moves a little closer, curious about what kind of crazy she doesn't have to deal with when she actually sees what the Avengers are fighting. Her bag drops from her shoulder, shock overtaking her as she watches the impossible plays out over the screen.

"Where is this." she grinds out

"7th Ave ma'am." the agent said, as Kim began calculating the distance in her head.

The former pink ranger took off running, making her way down to the garage and throwing her leg over the first sports bike that she found, taking a deep breath as she took off to her destination. She knew this was stupid, that she was going to expose herself completely by running headlong into a fight that the Avengers could probably handle but she couldn't find a reason in her to stop. The Tengas had been destroyed by the Z Wave, everything that hadn't been a humanoid being had been turned to ash. And she was Zordon's pink ranger, the first pink ranger on Earth, she owed it to the man who had been her father figure to at least check it out.

Weaving through traffic led Kim to come to a stop at the SHEILD blockade, surrounding the fight, cursing the fact that she didn't have her id to get her past them. Stopping the bike just short of the perimeter, she killed the bike and got off, surveying the situation. The Hulk was not involved in this skirmish, which was normal for missions in New York as they tried to minimize the damage. The Tengas were doing a good job of kicking butt, which worried her far too much. Tengas were tough, but tough enough to take on the Avengers? Getting a running start, she launched herself off a parked car, front flipping into the middle of the skirmish, behind the perimeter line.

"I thought the Z Wave toasted you overgrown turkey's." She called out, getting the attention of everyone involved.

"Nothing can stop evil Pink Ranger." The lead Tenga said before it flew at her, Kim taking the defensive just long enough to get her footing and start attacking.

"Yeah I've heard that before." she groaned out, flipping backwards because damn did these things pack far more of a punch than they ever had.

"Agent Hart do you know what these things are?" Captain Rogers asked from her left.

"Supposed to be dead, that's what they are." Kim's voice taking on an angry tone as she kicked out at the overgrown bird.

Kimberly surveyed the battlefield after a few more minutes of fighting, worn down and not seeing any other options. It was a stupid decision, she knew that, and something that might get her killed if it didn't work. She had to try though, nothing seemed to be working even with a group of superheros around her. _"Zordon."_ she thought as she moved away from the fight, wanting space just incase the Power backlashed during this attempt. _"if you can hear me, may the power protect me."_

"NINJETTE THE CRANE." she shouted into the air, eyes screwed tightly shut, a split second before the crane screeched to life in the back of her mind and she was again clad in the pink ninja uniform that had been made for her. Even though she had shared these powers with Katherine, they were hers, just as much as her heart or lungs belonged to her.

"Alright birdbrains, let's tengo." she quipped, flipping forward as she made relatively quick work of the Tengas, smug when they started blowing up and dropping black feathers all over the place. It was a new development, but a satisfying one.

Kimberly let the morph drop, trying to keep the giddy feeling that was running through her system off her face. It had worked, against all odds she had been able to connect to her Ninjette powers, which meant that she might even be able to fully morph into her the Pink Ninja Ranger if she really needed to. A rough throat being cleared behind her caused the reality of what she had done to come crashing down around her. She turned, seeing the gathered Avengers in front of her, all wearing different expressions. Clint and Natasha were looking the most suspicious, and she was sure if she hadn't just dispatched the monsters that they had been fighting, they would have their weapons drawn on her.

"Agent Hart, the Director would like a word with you." Natasha Romanova said after Fury ranted into her earpiece.

"I heard." She said with a small smile, enjoying the shocked expressions that befell the two Avengers that weren't able to school their reactions. "Tell him I'll come back with you guys, will answer what I'm able to." Kim schooled her face, knowing it wasn't an answer any of them were going to like, but she needed to protect the others. She might have outed herself, but she wouldn't out the others, this was already breaking the Code by doing what she had done.

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Chapter Title Song: Soldier-Fleurie


	3. Monster

A/N: And we're back with chapter three! As usual I own nothing and am making no profit. Also I'd like to just let everyone know that we will see the original 12 rangers all back together again, but if the outline goes as planned it will not be till around chapter 8 or so. Also I will be adding more meat to the fight scenes as the story progresses, the second chapter was already so long that I cut them down a bit. Finally all the chapter titles are songs that I feel are in some way relevant to the chapter and the story. All the songs will be at the bottom of each chapter!

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"The world just keeps getting weirder." Jason Lee Scott commented as he sat down at his kitchen counter, his back to the TV he had turned down when his wife called him. She was about to fly back from Vietnam, her work at the Consulate requiring her to go to the country where her parents had immigrated from. "Next thing you know there will be world peace." He was eating some leftover lasagna before heading into work for his overnight shift, his wife would get home just an hour before he would and then they would be able to spend the next two days together before either had to go back to work. "I'll see you tomorrow though, fly safe." he let out a chuckle as she reminded him to be safe while he was out working. "I will. I love you too." Jason hung up the phone and dug back into his food, never turning around to look at the tv screen until well after the story that would be of interest to him was long over. Had he turned around when he hung up with his wife, he would have seen a brief glimpse of a pink ninja taking out overgrown crows.

Jason Lee Scott had enlisted in the army after his stint as the Gold Zeo Ranger, restless and feeling like no matter what, he would always need to be in the thick of the fight. He had done three tours overseas, before coming home and marrying his longtime girlfriend Trini Kwan, the move to New York had been motivated by Trini being offered a position with the Consulate, Jason rattling around their apartment before landing on taking the civil service exam and attending the police academy. All of his friends had attended his graduation, even Billy who had newly returned from Aquitar, all except Kimberly. He had tried to find her of course, exhausted every resource all of them had but it was like she didn't exist. It hurt him in more ways than he could accurately describe. Kimberly had been his first friend, his little sister. Everything in their lives they had faced together, up until right after they had been dropped in a lava pit and turned into soullessly evil children of a lava monster. He'll never forget the moment he called her after three letters had been sent back to him, only to find out that the number was no longer in service. He called the gym she was training at after that, only to find himself told that Kimberly would take no calls from him and the the receptionist hung up on him.

He'd never gotten over the sting of that, to be completely shut out of his sister's life for no fathomable reason. They watched her compete in the games, watched as she gave interviews that never once mentioned the group of friend who were all watching. Equal parts angry and sad, Jason wondered what the carmel haired woman was doing now a days.

 **S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, New York City**

Kim felt a little like she had been left in the room with giants. Even if she had been a superhero longer than any of the people in the room, she didn't count Rogers' time on ice, they were all still formidable, and should they decide that she wasn't to be trusted, she wasn't totally sure that she would be able to take them all on. Fury had them all, including Dr. Banner who had been monitoring the situation apparently, in a conference room; the pink ranger sitting back in her chair with an air of utter nonchalance.

"You left some things out on your application Agent Hart." Nick Fury comments dryly.

"So you've discovered." she says with a mock solemnity.

"What exactly are you?" Tony Stark pipes from the across the table "You yell out some nonsense and then suddenly you're a bright pink ninja who was able to wallop those bird things."

"You seemed to know what they were, you mentioned something about a Z Wave. Is that also a threat to the city?" Captain Rogers was eying her with curiosity in his gaze.

"They're called Tenga's, foot soldiers for a morphological being known as Ivan Ooze and then later, for the space witch Rita Repulsa and her husband Lord Zedd. They were supposed to have been destroyed in 1998." she gives out facts with a flat tone of her voice, lifting herself from her chair and crossing to the floor to ceiling windows, arms crossed over her chest as Kimberly Hart tried her to best to figure out how to tell this story. "I was part of a team that started in 1993, and no, I won't tell you anything about the other people that were on my team. I also wouldn't suggest trying to figure out their identities, we might not have answered to any Earth government, but the two governing councils we did answer to have more than enough weight to bring you down." Kim turned back around to look at Fury who was raising his one good eyebrow at her. She knew about the Morphin Council and the Galactic Council, Zordon having once given them a history lesson on the Power Rangers as a whole. She had no way to get in contact with either, but the threat would hopefully stop any of them from looking.

"You'd have been fifteen in 1993 Agent, what kind of team recruits a teenager and gives them powers like yours?"

The pink ranger chuckles in response, shaking her head just a little bit, addressing the group as a whole. "I became Earth's first Pink Power Ranger in 1993, and like Director Fury mentioned, I was 15. As was most of the rest of my team. We were given powers by an interdimensional wizard from the planet Eltar named Zordon, and his assistant Alpha 5. Alpha 5 was a robot built on the planet Edenio by it's king, a second Alpha unit would help later teams. We were called after the space witch Rita Repulsa was freed from her prison on the moon and set her sights on conquering earth. Zordon chose five of us and gave us the power of the dinosaurs to combat Rita. She would send down foot soldiers called putties and when we defeated those." Kim was cut off from the story by Clint interrupting.

"I thought you said those Tenga things we fought today were Rita's foot soldiers."

"You're getting a few years ahead of the story Barton." she said with a shake of her head. "Her foot soldiers were easy to defeat without our powers, even for me and another one of our team who had almost no martial arts training when it all started. She'd send down a monster and we'd defeat that using our powers, then we'd call the zords. Zords being giant fighting machines that could combine to make a Megazord. The monster would get destroyed for good and then we'd repeatthe cycle all over again. Sometimes there would be an attack the middle of the night, more than once she'd have sprung a monster before school even started. None of us got much sleep the first few weeks and as the months went on being a ranger was just part of our lives. Then Rita got a bright idea and used a power coin, what we were drawing our powers from, that Zordon had thought lost, to turn another teenager at our school into the evil green ranger. He came very close to killing us before we were able to break the spell on him and he joined our team. He became the White Ranger after Rita found a way to drain the Green powers from him. Around the same time, Zedd showed up and sealed Rita back into her prison for failing to destroy us and boy did he end up being a horror show. If Rita hadn't broken out of her prison and tricked him into marrying her, he might have killed us. There were personnel changes on the team, and then power changes and in early November 1995, I was approached by Gunther Schmidt with an offer to train for the Pan Globles Games. Competing in the Pan's was a gateway to the Olympics and at 17 it was everything I thought I wanted. So I passed my powers on to another girl and went off to train. The rest for the most part, is public record." She had skipped over more than she actually told, not mentioning her and Jason's return to Angel Grove or any of the personal relationships she no longer had with the team.

"So where were the rest of your team during New York?" Natasha questioned almost bitterly

"Retired, just like I was. That I'm aware of I'm the only one that even lives in New York. The current team was battling their own evil at the time, and to my knowledge the ability to access any sort of teleportation grid was something that stopped after the Turbo team. Better minds than mine would be able to explain why that is." Mixing truth with the lie was the best way to go about it, SHIELD had been the ones to teach her that.

"Agent Hart, I'll like to again bring up the Z Wave. You never gave Steve an answer on if it's a threat to the city" Dr. Banner piped up from where he had been sitting, eyes near squinting at her as Captain Rogers nodded from next to him.

Kimberly swallowed harsly, stomach doing somersaults as she thought about that day. "The Z Wave is what we called a phenomenon that happened in 1998. The United Alliance of Evil had finally conquered the galaxy, Angel Grove was the last hold out. The Red Space Ranger was able to get on board of the villain's ship, where my mentor Zordon was being held captive. At Zordon's behest, Space Red destroyed the energy tube that held Zordon, destroying him and releasing the wave of good energy that purified any of our humanoide enemies and turned the rest to ash." She paused there, swallowing again in an attempt to keep herself from crying at the loss that had reared up in her with a sudden fierceness.

 **Blue Wolf Technologies Headquarters, San Francisco, California**

"Justin are you playing that ridiculous bird soundtrack again?" William "Billy" Cranston called through his open lab door, into the younger blue rangers.

The 29 year old engineer popped his head up from where he had been working on his latest project, a small bluetooth ear pierced sized item called the Omni Device, a handy piece of tech that would allow the wearer to understand what was spoken to them in any language. It could also be paired with the cellphone app and speak whatever you wanted it to say in any language. "You do it one time as a prank and then all the sudden I'm always playing bird noises." the younger blue ranger rolled his eyes as he walked back to his work station, ignoring the way the older male lingered in the doorway for a few more moments with a confused look on his face. Shaking his head Billy walked back to his work table, moving the prototype he had been working on away and sitting down. He could have sworn he heard a loud screeching noise, like something a heron or crane would make. It was a silly notion, he was very cognisant of just how ridiculous a notion it was that what he thought he heard was Kimberly's animal spirit calling out to his. For one, their connections to the Ninjette had been severed and the second being that of all of them that had been Ninjette, he doubted the first person her animal spirit would seek out would be him. Privately, and Billy had never said his thoughts out loud, he thought Kim was most probably dead. It was his only logical explanation for why she no longer spoke to them. He had privately mourned his friend when he arrived back on earth and was told of her radio silence, wondering about the hows and the whys of it. He had gone looking of course, after a few weeks of being back and regaining his bearings, but come up empty handed.

 **S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, New York City**

"So what you're telling me Hart is that you did something real stupid to be the hero today?" Nick Fury asked as she explained for a second time the difference between her two ranger forms and why she couldn't just morph into the full Pink Ninja Ranger.

"Basically, yes. The powers I called on were thought to be completely destroyed, no remnants of them, and from what I understand about the Morphin Grid, which I will again remind the techno nerds in the room, that is a very very limited understanding, the power should have backlashed at me and killed me." Her finger flies up in the air as she talks to cut off another round of questions from Stark and Banner who were both intensely interested in how the morph sequences and the Grid itself.

" _To those who posses the Great Power, anything is possible"_

Dulcea's voice floated through her head, the memory of their combined power bringing Zordon back to life and repairing the damage done to the Command Center.

"I think that if I needed it, the way I did today, I might be able to fully connect to the powers. I'm not willing to try it unless I really need to though." Kimberly had a feeling she would need to soon enough, if things went how they normally did for Rangers.

"You think more is coming." Natasha observed "More that will require you to try."

"More always comes." She said solemnly.

"I'd like you to train with the team then, be attached to them to help deal with any of the more you're expecting to show up. Outside of this room you'll be a liaison, like Agent Hill or Darcy Lewis." Director Fury's edict drew surprised looks from all of them, none more than Kim's.

"Agent Hart while I'll take any help I can get against those things, you're retired. None of us will blame you if you don't want to jump back into the fight and want to just consult." Captain Rogers said, part of Kim wanting to protest even though what he said was sincerely and not in an unkind way.

"I'd like to train with them a little, before I agree to anything Director." Agent Kimberly Hart said softly, a small smirk on her face. She knew the Avengers were good, but she wanted to see just how good they all were, wanted to see how they worked as a team up close.

 **Brooklyn, New York**

A dark haired man wearing a baseball cap, a grey jacket layered over a brown hoodie, a red henley shirt, blue jeans and black combat boots looked up at the brick building in front of him, a slight quirk of his eyebrow showed his surprise that it was still there. They had left him out of the ice too long and he was starting to remember, his addled brain trying to piece together the jumbled mess of memories. He remembered this building though, a whip thin blonde boy who never knew how to back down from a fight, and promising to be there till the end of the line.

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Chapter Title Song: Monster-Mumford and Sons


	4. This Is Happening

A/N:Oh jesus i'm sorry this chapter took forever to get written guys. I got struck down with the flu and it was bad. So now we're into the meat of the story, and i wanted to kind of give you guys an update on what's going to go on with the Marvel Timeline. Captain America: The Winter Soldier takes place in April of 2014, and our story is currently in February of 2014. Everything up to Thor: The Dark World is cannon, and everything after is not. I will be introducing Bucky Barnes and the Avengers will continued to be involved with the story and we will occasionally be checking in on them the way we've been currently checking in on past rangers. But the reason for my total mucking of the timeline is that by the time we hit April 2014 in the story will have shifted focus to the rangers and the story I'm trying to tell with them. If you're reading this on Archive of Our Own, you'll see that two of the tags are Team as Family and Learning to Trust Again. Ultimately this is a Power Rangers story and the focus, once the team is all back together, will be on them. This is also a story with a heavy focus on Kimberly, and I wanted to give you all time with the person she has become, to sort of re-get to know her and we'll get to know the other rangers again beyond the brief glimpses we've seen and ya known, without the lense of a kids TV show. I will also preface this first part by saying writing full fight scenes is not something I have done in almost six years. Please forgive the visible rust.

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Kimberly stood on one end of the room, watching the Avengers with marked interest. She knew she could probably take on Clint and Natasha without her suit, they were evenly matched in martial arts skills and to her knowledge, they didn't have the enchantments she had. Steve Rogers would be a toss up, his good old boy sensibilities might cause him some issues fighting a woman and if their strength and reflexes were on par, she could use the tactics that had always worked against Tommy and Jason, Stark she would need to call on her Ninja form for, she doubted though that unless she tried for a full morph that she would come out on top of that fight. Her agility could only help her for so long against the firepower that the Iron Man armor held and she wasn't willing to try and morph yet, still unsure it would even work.

"How do you want to do this Agent Hart?" Dr. Banner asked from beside her. The man had declared that he was unwilling to bring the Hulk out against her, and Kim had to agree there would be no point in it. She wasn't even sure how a Megazord would fair against the Hulk, let alone her unmorphed.

"I'll start with Clint and Natasha, then Rogers and then finally Iron Man in the suit." She said with a tone of nonchalance, as if she was training with anyone else.

"I hope you're not planning to put that shield away Captain? I always was really good at frisbee." she teased, watching as eyebrows went up around the group.

"No ma'am." he said almost cautiously

"Alright then kids, let's get this show on the road." Tony said from the corner of the room, armor on but his faceplate lifted.

"You hurting for an asskicking that bad Stark?" Clint asked with chuckle, satisfied that all of his arrowheads had been replaced with safe training ones as he knocked an arrow.

It wasn't in any way honorable, but he wanted to test Kim's reflexes, see if that comment she made about being able to hear Fury on Nat's comm had been a well placed bluff. He let the arrow fly and watched just a little stunned as the woman went from standing slightly relaxed next to Bruce to throwing herself into a backflip, avoiding the arrow that sailed past her, dinged against the wall and fell with a clatter to the floor. Kimberly landed on her feet, both hands up in a defensive position as she waited for the next attack to come. Natasha attacked from her right, Kim barely getting a block in to stop the kick that the red haired woman had aimed at her head. The former pink ranger spun gracefully, using her leg to sweep away the Black Widow's balance, sending a surprised Natasha stumbling, the force of the leg having not been what she was prepared for. A round off into a front flip put some distance between her and her opponents, a second round off letting her dodge another one of Clint's arrows. Smiling as she dropped into a defensive position, Kim let her front hand extended, palm up and then gestured for the two of them to get on with it, a clear taunt at the both. From the sidelines, Tony was watching highly amused as the two master assassins attacked with vigor, the three now trading blows in an almost bloodthirsty way. It was extremely entertaining to watch and not just because the chocolate haired woman seemed to be taunting the pair at every moment she could, but because up until now, he hadn't seen anyone able to match the two where martial arts were concerned. Steve had strength, his show offy punches, kicks, flips and of course the shield. He wondered absently if the physics defying disc would help him, since he had seen the woman dodge more than one of Clint's arrows.

"Do you yield?" Kimberly's voice pulled Tony out of his thoughts, eyebrow raising up into his hairline when he saw the woman had Clint's own bow trained on him, Natasha having frozen at the question.

Clint did not give a verbal answer, but nodded and slowly stood up, Kim handing back the bow and then turned on her heel to Natasha, the two women facing off with each other, smiling widely.

"Not bad. Surprised you managed to hide skills like that from the agency." Natasha commented with an gleam in her eye, trying to drag information out about the woman as they traded blows.

"You spend long enough wearing the mask, it becomes your life." She said with mock solemnity, the truth poking through just a little bit.

"Stereotypical valley girl like you, I'm sure you had to beat them off with a stick." Never let it be said that Natasha didn't work quick. In the time between Fury calling the meeting and when the Director had actually stepped into the room, Natasha had used S.H.I.E.L.D and J.A.R.V.I.S to dig up as much information as she possibly could on Agent Kimberly Hart, and it seemed, she had just struck a severe nerve. Suddenly the pink rangers attack blows came out heavier, angrier than Natasha had been expecting. "Or were you the more looks innocent love 'em and leave 'em type?"

Kim saw red, almost swearing that for the briefest of moments her eyes were the red they had been when she had been Maligore's daughter. She sent out a furious kick to the other woman's abdomen, using all of the might she possessed, sneering as she watched Natasha crumbled to the ground, spitting out blood. It struck an emotional cord, making her think of what she had done with the letter. She had done exactly what agent Romanoff had implied, the reminder was not kind to her. She had destroyed the best relationship she had ever had, turned to ash like Power Coins in Goldar's hand.

"You're ready to go Captain?" Kimberly asked, turning away from Natasha, not paying attention to Bruce and Clint helping her off to the sides, the doctor looking her over.

"That was out of line, Agent Hart." Steve chided, rolling his shoulders as he stepped onto the blue mat, the pink ranger slowly advancing on him.

"Your line placement and mine are different." She shrugged, waiting for him to make the first move. With Clint and Natasha she knew they would be eager to test her as much as they could, but Steve had seen her show off a little, had seen the brutal strength that her slim gymnast body hid. She wanted to see how he approached a threat he knew, if he was more like Jason or like Tommy. Kimberly continued to move in a circular motion, her arms up in a defense position, until finally Steve got tired of waiting for her to make the first move and he did. Swinging out at her with his left arm, Kim put up her arm to block a smirk blooming across her face at the slight look of shock that covered Rogers's face. She used his shock to make her move, lunging slightly as she used her free arm to strike at his knees, watching as it knocked his balance away with a satisfied grin. The soldier kipped himself back up and launched himself into a flurry of attacks, impressed by the speed of her response and the power that she put behind each blow.

"You're holding back Captain Rogers and I find it highly offensive." Kimberly commented dryly as they traded blows, Steve doing his best to hold back his considerable strength while also not putting his all into the fight.

"Natasha mentions the same thing every time we spar." he replies back with a slight tone of laughter in his voice

"It's an insult to your opponent." Kim remarked with a cold tone as his legs were swept out from under him.

The pink ranger reached down to help him up, yelping in surprise when she was flipped over him and to the ground. The slight woman was grinning like a maniac when they were face to face again. Steve let himself get lost in the fight, no longer letting himself get his ass kicked by Kimberly but still having trouble besting her. She was incredibly well trained he observed and her agility made it easy for her to flip or jump out of the reach of his blows. Even the shield had proved to not deter the woman, sometimes using his penchant for blocking with it against him. One time using the low block he had planned with it to launch herself off it in a backward flip, her foot clipping his chin as it went backwards. The pink ranger kicked forward once and then a second, more powerful blow sent him sprawling back, his chest aching ever so slightly. He was about to strike back when he saw the Iron Man armor rising into the air behind Kim, rolling out of the way when Tony shot a repulsor wide so as to let the woman know he was there but not harm her.

"Ninjette! The Crane." Kim shouted the phrase, Steve backing away as he watched in slight awe as a flash of bright pink light encased her for the briefest second and when it was gone, the pink ninja stood in her place.

"You really can't explain that one can you?"Tony asked as the woman focused on him, the scientist in him dying to know just how it worked, his hatred of magic fueling his need to have a scientific explanation.

Instead of speaking, Kim smirked behind her facemask and created a smokescreen, using the pink smoke as a cover to burrow under the ground, reappearing behind Stark. She knew she couldn't beat him, but there was no harm in showing off the perks that came with the ninja powers. "I told you Tony, I was just there to look pretty."

The Iron Man spun around, breath catching a little as he saw two more ninja's split off from the original. Each ninja's hand gripped the left side of her uniform before seeming to toss if off, leaving Kimberly standing alone and without the suit. "I yield, even with the power of the ninja suit I don't stand a chance against your fire power."

Tony nodded, although it didn't look like anything more than a slight inclination of his head to anyone outside the armor. He had to admit that it stroked his ego to know that she didn't think she could take him on, when the other's besides Bruce had all been easy for her to hold up against. He wished she had been able to fully morph, wanting to see what her full powers were like and to test his armor against them. The sheer thought of it had him giddy at ways he could improve his armor after fighting against hers.

"So do we pass your test, Agent?" Natasha wondered icely from his right.

"I'll put a call into Fury that i'm willing to be attached to the team for missions that include my enemies and any you as a team face that I can help with. The ranger powers will strictly be for use against Tenga's and anything else from my neck of the woods that pops up." She looked at both Rogers and Stark as she spoke, her gaze lingering on Tony.

"Stop by once all the paper works done, I make all the best toys." the engineer offered, a few ideas for a uniform of sorts for her already blazing through his mind.

 **Scott Apartment, New York City, February 18th 2014**

Trini Scott very rarely called out sick from work, able to count the number of times she had done so in the past five years on one hand with fingers left over. Her day had been spent on the couch with homemade soup, orange juice and lots of tissues, CNN playing on the TV as she watched the world keep on turning. The news was currently showing footage of the Avenger's latest skirmish, the video caught by a station in Boston, as they took on some sort of deformed metal creatures. Trini was just about to switch it over to one of the daytime soap operas that her mother in law was fond of when something caught her eye. To her knowledge there had only been one female Avenger, but it seemed there was a second now, currently fighting alongside Captain America. She was dressed like a ninja, wearing a mostly black outfit that left no part of her skin open to attack, a lower face mask covering her nose and a hood covering her hair from view. The first yellow ranger found it interesting that included in the outfit was a war skirt; the fabric only as thick as the gap in the woman's thighs, and long enough that it stopped just above her knee and also that the accents on the costume were a deep pink. Not bright enough to draw attention but subtly there if you were scrutinizing the outfit. She watched the woman fighting, not surprised that the TV crew kept panning back to her whenever they could. The way she fought was familiar to Trini and it took her a few moments before realization dawned on her cruel and shocking. Her hand blindly groped for her cellphone, moving on autopilot as she found the contact she was looking for and started a call.

"Are you in your hotel room?" she asked the man on the other end of the phone, voice filled with heartache. "Turn on CNN, now!" the harsh tone startled the man on the other end, who rushed to do what she said.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Zack Taylor asked with confusion, eyes widening as he understood what he was watching. "Holy shit, Tiger." he breathed

"I'm not hallucinating right? My mind isn't playing tricks on me because I'm sick? You see what I see?" she asked quietly, calmly voicing the words

"I see Kimberly Hart as a member of the Avengers." Zack confirmed, head falling back against the wall.

Kimberly had been the unspoken ghost between them all since the Turbo switch. Zack remembered trying to get a call through to her after what had happened, wanting to check up on her after the whole being turned evil and talk about the Olympics the year before, but the number he had for her was suddenly out of service, and when he had made contact with her mother, thanks to a number his mother had, Caroline had gently informed him that Kimberly had actually forbidden her mother to give out her new number to any of her old friends. She had of course shown up on the television during the 2000 Olympics but any attempts to find her or get in contact with her had been for nothing. And here she was, an Avenger in a ninja suit and taking on the metal creatures with just as much ease as Captain America.

"Trini is she, keeping up with Captain America?" he asked curiously, wanting to see if she had noticed the same thing he had

"Jason said he kept his super strength after the whole Maligore thing." Trini takes a deep breath at the mention of her husband, knowing that the conversation wouldn't be an easy one.

"Is he home?" Zach asks her softly, thoughts drifting to his oldest friend

"No, his shift gets done in a few hours. I'll talk to him. Try to keep him from going downtown and beating down the door to Stark Tower." she could already see the explosive reaction her husband would have to the news, the red ranger in him wanting to bull into the situation as if it were a china shop.

When Jason lets himself into his apartment building after a particularly long day, his sensitive nose is assaulted with the smells of his wife's home cooking. The man couldn't help be surprised since when he left her this morning she was very sick and laying on the couch, not in any mood to be cooking the complex dishes he could smell.

"Okay who died?" he said half in jest as he walked through the door of the apartment, eyebrow raised as he looked around their kitchen. The last time his wife had stress cooked to this extent, had been when Zordon was killed during the Countdown.

"Go get changed and then sit down. We have to talk." The tone of her voice leaves no room for argument and in true Red fashion, he stands stock still, the door closing softly behind him.

"What happened, Trini? Is it my mom?" he keeps his voice level, even as his hand shakes slightly. Last year, Ramona Scott beat her long struggle with breast cancer, and he could only assume that the dire tone in his wife's voice and the stress cooking was because it had come back.

"Firebird surfaced" she said quietly, his eyes widening in stunned confusion as she turns her laptop and presses play on a video, setting it to full screen so he can watch the news coverage. Jason gripped the top of the breakfast bar chair closest to him, using it to steady himself as he watched it all play out. His grip was so tight that he could feel the metal start to give way under his impressive strength, face starting to tinge with his signature color.

"Fucking bitch." he swore, tossing the chair to the ground and surprising not only his wife but himself as well. He stood for a moment in shock, staring down at the chair before finally looking up at her, tears shining unshed in his eyes.

"It's okay, baby." Trini assured him, once she had crossed the room and wrapped her slim arms around his broad shoulders. "Just let it out." she coaxed him, trying to rationalize that there had to be a good reason for what Kimberly had done, wanting to believe that the girl who had been her best friend on the planet wouldn't do this for no reason.

 **Somewhere in Space**

"That blasted pink ranger is going to ruin everything!" the henchman groaned to his master, his fist shaking in direction of the viewing screen.

"Oh come now, this has only just begun." the villain spoke with a smooth voice, his face was boyish, his acid green eyes and the slight point to his ears the only things that gave him away physically as not being a human. "And she's been divided from her team for a very long time, I would not count on them mending those bridges so easily." he reminded his henchman with a wagging finger.

"Yes master." his henchman nodded, the golden glint of his armor reflecting off the low candle light

"Are the acolytes almost ready?" he asked the creature who served as his right hand

"They will be ready for the ritual by tomorrow." the other informed him with a sinister smirk.

"Let us keep our focus there, as we are not ready to reveal our true purpose. I'll keep sending creatures down as tests. There's no sense in worrying before we need to." he was nonchalant, overconfident in his belief that where others had failed he would succeed. The pink ranger showing up had been an unexpected turn of events, but not one that could not be surmounted. The rangers that had been hailed across the galaxies as undefeatable were fractured and the villain was skeptical that those fractures could be mended well enough to create a viable fighting force.

 **White Crane Gymnastics, New York City, February 20th 2014**

"Hey Kim there's some beefy cute guy here to see you." one of her younger assistants startled her, causing her to give a small yelp and look up from the paperwork she was currently trying to finish. She froze, because the only men that fit the description that would come looking for her were not ones that were supposed to be able to find this place, the last thing Kimberly wanted was a full out scene in front of her students.

"Did he say what he wanted?" she asked, turning her chair lightly as she reached for the tilt wand, opening the blinds a little in the hopes she would be able to get a glimpse of who it was.

"No, just asked if you were here today and if he could talk to you." the young woman raised a brow, unsure of why her boss wasn't running out to talk to the extremely good looking blonde man.

Kimberly stepped out of her office, eyes tracking to the door and her nerves settling. It hasn't been Tommy, Jason or Billy like she thought it might be, but Steve Rogers standing there like he had been dropped from 1940.

"I guess I have Stark to thank for you turning up here?" She asked him with a raised brow, feigning annoyance when it was curiosity driving her words.

"J.A.R.V.I.S actually. I was surprised to find you don't own the place though, given its name." he said with a warm smile.

"Callaghan is my grandmother's maiden name, and my father named my younger sister Juliana." she explained with a mischievous look in her eye, Steve's smile widening further at the clever concealment. "Although something tells me that isn't what brought you down here."

"No, not totally. I was wondering if you might want to get coffee sometime. I'd like to get to know you beyond the personnel file and what Natasha managed to dig up." the man out of time shocked her, Kimberly pausing for a moment to think about the offer.

She wasn't sure if he meant it as a date or if it was just coffee to get to know each other a little better, something that made sense considering him being the leader of the avengers. But the implication of the possibility had her stomach in knots. She hadn't dated very much since Tommy, there had of course been no guy in Florida, but she had had a handful of boyfriends, one serious and the others much less than. Steve Rogers was a good looking man, and from what she knew about him, pure of heart. Her heart had never let go of Tommy, just as it had never let go of being a ranger and while one had turned out to be a good reason, maybe the former wasn't. Tommy was most likely married, maybe even had a child or two running around and was most certainly not still holding a torch for her. Just maybe, it was time for her to put the torch down as well.

"How do you feel about smoothies?" she finally answered, a ghost of a smile creeping across her face.

* * *

Chapter Title Song: This Is Happening - Taking Back Sunday

Also a poll is now up for this story, if you guys could take a second and vote


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